any where else, and that from the grapes was produced a wine very little inferior to that of France. Orchards and cyder were also abundant, and the apple trees, it is said, lined the roads in some parts of the country, as they still do in Normandy, whence in all probability the plants or at least the grafts would be imported.

SUBSECT. 3. History of Agriculture in Britain from the Thirteenth to the Seventeenth Century.

210. Agriculture in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, it appears, was still carried on with vigor. Sir John Fortescue, in a work in praise of the English laws, mentions the progress that had been made in planting hedges and hedge-row trees before the end of the fourteenth century. Judge Fortescue wrote his Legum Angliæ in the fifteenth century, but it was not published till the reign of Henry VIII. In the law book called Fleta (supposed to have been written by some lawyers, prisoners in the Fleet in 1340), very particular direc tions are given as to the most proper times and best manner of ploughing and dressing fallows. (Fleta, lib. ii. chap. 73. p. 163.) The farmer is there directed to plough no deeper in summer than is necessary for destroying the weeds; nor to lay on his manure till a little before the last ploughing, which is to be with a deep and narrow furrow. Rules are also given for the changing and choosing seed; — for proportioning the quantity of different kinds of seed to be sown on an acre, according to the nature of the soil, and the degree of richness ; - for collecting and compounding manures, and accommodating them to the grounds on which they are to be laid; —for the best seasons for sowing seeds of different kinds on all the variety of soils; - and in a word, for performing every operation in husbandry, at the best time, and in the best manner. (Fleta, lib. ii.' chap. 72, 73. 76.) In the same work, the duties and business of the steward, bailiff, and overseer, of a manor, and of all the other persons concerned in the cultivation of it, are explained at full length, and with so much good sense, that if they were well performed the manor could not be ill cultivated. (Ibid. ch. 72. 88. Henry, viii. 267.) This work as well as others of the kind is written in Latin, and even the farming accounts were those days kept in that language, as they still are in the greater part of Hungary.

211. During the greater part of the fifteenth century England was engaged in civil wars, and agriculture as well as other arts declined. The laborers, called from the plough by royal proclamation or the mandates of their lords, perished in battle or by accident and fatigue, in immense numbers. Labor rose in price notwithstanding various laws for its limitation, and this at last produced a memorable revolution in the state of agriculture, which made a mighty noise for many years. The prelates, barons, and other great proprietors of land, kept extensive tracts around their castles, which were called their demesne lands, in their own immediate possession, and cultivated them by their villains, and by hired servants, under the direction of their bailiffs. But these great landholders having often led their followers into the fields of war, their numbers were gradually diminished, and hired servants could not be procured on reasonable terms. This obliged the prelates, lords, and gentlemen to enclose the lands around their castles, and to convert them into pasture grounds. This practice of enclosing became very general in England about the middle of this period, and occasioned prodigious clamors from those who mistook the effect of depopulation for its cause.

212. The habit of enclosing lands and converting them to pasture continued after the cause had ceased, and an act was passed to stop its progress in the beginning of the reign of Henry VII. The dearths of this period are another proof of the low state of agriculture. Wheat in 1437 and 1438, rose from 4s. or 4s. 6d., the ordinary price per quarter, to 11. 6s. 8d., equivalent to 13. 6s. 8d. of our money. Stow observes that in these extremities the common people endeavored to preserve their wretched lives by drying the roots of herbs and converting them into a kind of bread. Land in those days were sold for ten years' purchase, so great was the insecurity of possession.

21S. Agriculture in Scotland was at a low ebb during the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth centuries, on account of the long and ruinous wars in which the country was engaged. A law passed in 1424 enacts, that every laborer of "simple estaste" dig a piece of ground daily, of seven feet square. Another in 1457, that farmers who had eight oxen should sow every year one firlot (bushel) of wheat, half a firlot of pease, and forty of beans, under the pain of ten shillings to be paid to the baron; and if the baron did not do the same thing to the lands in his possession, he should pay the same penalty to the king.

214. From the accession of Henry VII. in 1485, to nearly the middle of the seventeenth century, England enjoyed peace. The effects of former wars, however, required a considerable time to remove. The high price of labor, and the conversion of so much land to tillage, gave rise to different impolitic statutes, prohibiting the exportation of corn; while a great demand was created for wool by the manufacturers of the Netherlands, which tended to enhance the value of pasture lands, and depopulate the country. The flocks of individuals, in these times, sometimes exceeded twenty thousand; and an act was passed by Henry VIII., restricting them to a tenth of that number, ap

parently eluded by the partial exception of hereditary opulence. Had the restraints imposed on the exportation of corn been transferred to wool, the internal consumption would have soon regulated the respective prices of those articles; the proportion between arable and pasture lands would soon have been adjusted, and the declining cultivation of the country prevented. An improved cultivation was reserved, however, for a future period, when persecutions extirpated manufactures from the Netherlands; when the exportation of English wool had subsided, and its price diminished, the farmer or landholder, disappointed of his former exuberant profits, discovered the necessity of resuming the plough, and again restoring his pastures to culture. (Henry, xii. 261.)

215. The first English treatise on husbandry appeared during Henry VIII.'s reign, by Sir A. Fitzherbert, judge of the common pleas. It is entitled The Book of Husbandry, and contains directions for draining, clearing, and enclosing a farm; and for enriching and reducing the soil to tillage. Lime, marl, and fallowing are strongly recommended. The landlords are advised to grant leases to farmers who will surround their farms, and divide them by hedges into proper enclosures; by which operation, he says, "if an acre of land be worth six pens (folds of sheep), before it be enclosed, it will be worth eight pens when it is enclosed, by reason of the compost and dunging of the cattle.' Another reason is, that it will preserve the corn without the expence of a herdsman. From the time of the appearance of this work, in 1534, Harte dates the revival of husbandry in England.

216. The culture of hops in the present period was either introduced or revived in England; and flax was attempted, but without success, though enforced by law. (Holinstead, p. 110, 111. 24 Hen. 8. c. 4.) Legislature at that time endeavored to execute, by means of penalties, those rational improvements which have since been fostered and cherished by bounties; or what is better pursued from the common motive of selfinterest.

217. The breeding of horses was now much encouraged. To the passion of the age, and the predilection of the monarch for splendid tournaments, may be attributed the attention bestowed on a breed of horses of a strength and stature adapted to the weight of the complicated panoply with which the knight and his courser were both invested. Statutes of a singular nature were enacted, allotting for deer parks a certain proportion of breeding mares, and enjoining, not the prelates and nobles only, but those whose wives wore velvet bonnets, to have stallions of a certain size for their saddle. The legal standard was, fifteen hands in horses, thirteen in mares, and "unlikely tits" were, without distinction, consigned to execution. (27 Hen. 8. cap. 6. 35 Hen. 8. cap. 13. Vide Barrington's Observations on the Statutes, p. 443.) James the Fourth, with more propriety, imported horses from foreign countries to improve the degenerate breed of his own. (Pitscottie, p. 153.) Artificial grasses for their winter provender were still unknown; nor were asses propagated in England till a subsequent period. (Holinshead, p. 220. Polydore, Virgil, p. 15. Henry, xii. 268.

218. Of the state of agriculture in Scotland during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries little can be stated. According to Major (Historia Britannica, Paris, 1526.), a native of Berwick, "the peasants neither enclosed nor planted, nor endeavored to ameliorate the sterility of the soil." Such wheat as was required, must have been supplied from other countries; for, according to Fynnis Moryson, the produce of the country con sisted chiefly of oats and barley. Different laws were enacted for planting groves and hedges, and pruning orchards, gardens, and parks for deer: but it is not the barren injunctions of statutes that will excite a spirit of improvement in a country.

StaSECT. 4. History of Agriculture from the Death of Henry VIII. in 1547, to the

Revolution in 1688.

219. Agriculture, soon after the beginning of the sixteenth century, partook of the general improvement which followed the invention of the art of printing, the revival of literature, and the more settled authority of government; and, instead of the occasional notices of historians, we can now refer to regular treatises, written by men who engaged eagerly in this neglected, and hitherto degraded, occupation.

The

220. The first and best of early agricultural works is, The Book of Husbandry, already mentioned (215.), printed in 1534. This was followed, in 1539, by The Book of Surveying and Improvements, by the same author. In the former treatise we have a clear and minute description of the rural practices of that period; and from the latter Ray be learned a good deal of the economy of the feudal system in its decline. author of The Book of Husbandry writes from his own experience of more than forty years; and, if we except his biblical allusions, and some vestiges of the superstition of the Roman writers about the influence of the moon, there is very little of his work that should be omitted, and not a great deal that need be added, in so far as regards the culture of corn, in a manual of husbandry adapted to the present time. It may surprise some of the agriculturists of the present day, an eminent agricultural writer remarks, to be told, that, after the lapse of almost three centuries, Fitzherbert's practice,

in some material branches, has not been improved upon; and that in several districts abuses still exist, which were as clearly pointed out by him at that early period as by any writer of the present age. His remarks on sheep are so accurate that one might imagine they came from a storemaster of the present day. Those on horses, cattle, &c. are not less interesting; and there is a very good account of the diseases of each species, and some just observations on the advantage of mixing different kinds in the same pasture. Swine and bees conclude this branch of the work. He then points out the great advantages of enclosures; recommends "quyck settynge, dychynge, and hedgyng ;" and gives particular directions about the settes, and the method of training a hedge, as well as concerning the planting and management of trees. We have then a short information" for a yonge gentylman that intendeth to thryve," and a "prolouge for the wives' occupation," in some instances, rather too homely for the present time. Among other things, she is to "make her husband and herself some clothes;" and "she may have the lockes of the shepe, either to make blankettes and coverlettes, or both." This is not so much amiss; but what follows will bring our learned judge into disrepute, even with our most industrious housewives. "It is a wive's occupation to wynowe all manner of cornes, to make malte, to washe and wrynge, to make heye, shere corne, and, in time of nede, to helpe her husbande to fyll the muckewayne or dounge carte, drive the ploughe, to loade heye, corne, and suche other. And to go or ride to the market, to sel butter, chese, mylke, egges, chekyns, capons, hennes, pygges, gese, and all manner of cornes.' The rest of the book contains some useful advices about diligence and economy; and concludes, after the manner of the age, with many pious exhortations. (Encyc. Brit. art. Agr.)

221. The state of agriculture in England in the early part of the sixteenth century, and probably for a long time before, is thus ascertained; for Fitzherbert no where speaks of the practices which he describes or recommends as of recent introduction. The Book of Surveyinge adds considerably to our knowledge of the rural economy of that age. "Four maner of commens" are described; several kinds of mills for corn, and other purposes, and also " quernes that goo with hand;" different orders of tenants, down to the "boundmen," who," in some places contynue as yet;". "and many tymes, by color thereof, there be many freemen taken as boundmen, and their lands and goods is taken from them." Lime and marl are mentioned as common manures; and the former was sometimes spread on the surface to destroy heath. Both draining and irrigation are noticed; though the latter but slightly. And the work concludes with an inquiry" How to make a township that is worth XX marke a yere worth XX li. ayear:" this is to be done by enclosing, by which, he says, live stock may be better kept and without herds; and the closes or fields alternately cropped with corn, and “let lye” for a time.

222. Agriculture had attained a considerable degree of respectability during the reign of Elizabeth. According to Tusser, who wrote in that age, and whose work will be afterwards noticed, agriculture was best understood in Essex and Suffolk; at least enclosures were more common in these counties than in any other, which is always a proof of advancement. A farmer, according to Harrison the geographer, "will thinke his gaines very small towardes the end of his terme if he have not six or seven years rent lieing by him, therewith to purchase a new lease; beside a fair garnish of pewter on his cupboard, with as much more in odd vessels going about the house; three or four featherbeds; so many coverlets, and carpets of tapestrie; a silver salt; a bowle for wine, if not a whole neast; and a dozen of spoones to furnish owte the sute." (Harrison's Description of England, p. 188.)

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223. The condition of a yeoman before or about Elizabeth's time, is exemplified in the case of Bishop Latimer's father. My father," says Hugh Latimer, "was a yeoman, and had no land of his own; only he had a farm of three or four pounds by the year at the utmost; and hereupon he tilled so much as kept half a dozen men. He had a walk

for a hundred sheep; and my mother milked thirty kine, &c. He kept his son at school till he went to the university, and maintained him there; he married his daughters with five pounds, or twenty nobles a-piece; he kept hospitality with his neighbours, and some alms he gave to the poor; and all this he did out of the said farm." (Gilpin's Life of Latimer.)

224. Cattle were not plentiful in England at the beginning of Elizabeth's reign. In 1563 it was enacted, that no one should eat flesh on Wednesdays or Fridays, on forfeiture of three pounds, unless in case of sickness, or of a special licence, neither of which was to extend to beef or veal. (Stat. 5 Eliz. cap. 4.) Great pains were taken in the act to prove that it was a political, not a religious measure. "There

225. The vast number of parks in the kingdom are complained of by Harrison. are not less," he says, "than an hundred in Essex alone, where almost nothing is kept but a sorte of wilde and savage beasts, cherished for pleasure and delight." And pursuing the same subject, he says, "that if the world last a while after this rate, wheate and rie will be no graine for poore men to feed on." (Description of Britaine, p. 168.)

226. In Scotland the civil dissensions, and even anarchy, which prevailed until a late period in the sixteenth century, operated as a harsh check on every improvement in agriculture. Even the total expulsion of ecclesiastical landholders increased this evil; as the monks were easy landlords, and frequently not uninstructed in georgical knowledge. The tillers of the earth in Scotland had at least their full share of their country's misfortunes, when private vengeance for private wrongs superseded the regular but timid proceedings of public justice. A statute was then formed for their particular benefit, whereby (Stat. 110. Parl. 7 Jac. 6.) "the slayers and houchers (houghers) of horses and uther cattel," with their employers and maintainers, are declared "to have incurred the paine of death, and confiscation of alle their gudes movvabil." A second act passed in 1587 for the further protection of husbandmen, declaring all such as destroyed or maimed horses, oxen, &c, cut or destroyed ploughs or plough-geers (in time of tilling), or trees and corn, should suffer death. (Stat. 83. Parl. 2 Jac. 6.) Several acts of parliament were made to protect the farmers from petulant tithe-gatherers; the proper times of notice were herein pointed out, and liberty given to the tiller of the land to proceed in his work if this notice was neglected. The last (Stat. 84. Parl. 2 Jac. 6.) confirmed and explained the others. (Andrew's Continuation of Henry's Hist. ii. 124.) 227. Great attention was still paid to the breed of horses in England; but during the reign of Elizabeth it was found necessary to lower the standard appointed by Henry VIII. for stallions, from fourteen hands to thirteen. This modification, however, was only to take place in the counties of Cambridge, Huntingdon, Northampton, Lincoln, Norfolk, and Suffolk. (8 Eliz. cap. 8.) No stallion of less height could be turned out on commons, forests, &c. for fear of diminishing the breed. Harrison extols the height and strength of the English draught-horses; five or six of them, he says, will with ease draw three thousand weight of the greatest tale for a long journey. As to the number of horses in the realm, some judgment may be formed from the quota which Elizabeth, when she moved her place of residence, demanded from the country in the neighborhood of her palace. This was 24,000; "a far less traine," says the reverend writer, "than those of the kings of other nations." (Description of Britaine, p. 220.)

228. An English traveller, who visited Scotland in 1598, observed a great abundance of all kind of cattle, and many horses; not large, but high-spirited and patient of labor. (Moryson's Itin. part iii. p. 154.) Great care, indeed, was taken by the English, while the kingdoms were separate, to prevent the Scots from improving their breed by southern stallions; it was even made felony to export horses thither from England. (1 Eliz. cap. 7.) This unneighborly prohibition was answered by a reciprocal restriction in 1567, as to the exportation of Scottish horses (Stat. 22. Parl. 1 Jac. 6.); but France, rather than England, seems to be pointed out by that statute. One circumstance pointed out by a curious antiquary (Paper apud Transactions of Sc. Aut. Soc. vol. i. p.171.), is a convincing proof of the modern improvement in the breed. For many years past eight nails have been used to each horse's shoe in the north; six used to be the number.

299. The proper season for turning horses to grass was thought a consideration worthy the attention of the Scottish government, avowedly to prevent the waste of corn. All horses were, therefore, ordered to be put to grass from May 15 to Oct. 15, on pain of forfeiting each horse, or its value, to the king. Genthemen of 1000 marks, yearly rent, and all upwards, are excepted. (Stat. 122. Parl. 7 Jac. 6.) The 1st of June was substituted in a subsequent act (Stat. 56. Parl. 2 Jac. 6.) for the 15th of May.

230. The vine in England continued to be cultivated for wine; but not generally, for the vineyards of the Lords Cobham and Williams of Thames, are pointed out by Barnaby Gooch as emimently productive. It is probable this branch of culture declined with the suppression of the monasteries, and the more general culture of barley; as farmers and others would soon find that good beer was a cheaper and better drink than any wine that could be made in this country. Though the potatoe was introduced in this reign by Capt. Hawkins from Santa Fé in 1565, yet it did not come into general use, even in gardens, for nearly two centuries afterwards.

231. The principal agricultural authors of Elizabeth's reign are, Tusser, Googe, and Sir Hugh Platt. Thomas Tusser was born at Rivenhall in Essex, in 1527. Having a fine voice, he was impressed for the royal chapel, and sang in St. Paul's, under a celebrated musician. "Afterwards he was a scholar at Eton, and next a student at Cambridge. He next became, by turns, musician, farmer, grazier, and poet; but always unsuccessfully, although guilty neither of vice nor extravagance.' His Five Hundred Points of Husbandry was published in 1562, and has been recommended by Lord Molesworth to be taught in schools. (Some Considerations for the promoting of Agriculture and employing the Poor, Dublin, 1723.) It is written in hobbling verse, and contains some useful notices concerning the state of agriculture in different parts of England. Hops, which had been introduced in the early part of the sixteenth century, and on the culture of which a treatise was published, in 1574, by Reynolde Scott, are mentioned as a well-known crop. Buck-wheat was sown after barley. It seems to have been the practice then, in some places, to "geld fillies" as well as colts. Hemp and flax are mentioned as common crops. Enclosures must have been numerous in several counties;

and there is a very good "comparison between champion (open fields) country, and severall." There is nothing to be found in Tusser about serfs, or bondmen, as in Fitzherbert's works. (Encyc. Brit. art. Agricul.)

232. The next writer is Barnaby Googe, a Lincolnshire gentleman, whose Whole Art of Husbandry was printed in 1758. It is, for the most part, made up of gleanings from all the ancient writers of Greece and Rome, whose absurdities are faithfully retained; with here and there some description of the practices of the age, in which there is little novelty or importance. Googe mentions a number of English writers who lived about the time of Fitzherbert, whose works have not been preserved.

233. Sir Hugh Platt's Jewel Houses of art and nature was printed in 1594. It is chiefly a compilation from other writers. The author appears to have been a lawyer of Lincoln's Inn, but he had a seat in Essex, and another in Middlesex, where he spent great part of his time. The Rev. William Harrison, a cotemporary of Platt, and chaplain to baron Cobham, wrote a description of Britain, and translated Boethius's History of Scotland. In the former work are many valuable hints on the progress of husbandry in the early part of the reign of Elizabeth. Among other curious things he asserts that the Spanish, or Merino sheep, was originally derived from England.

234. The seventeenth century is distinguished by some important improvements in agriculture, among which are the introduction of clovers and turnips in England; of hedges in Scotland and Ireland; and the execution of extensive embankments and drainages. Some useful writers also appeared, especially Norden, Gabriel Plattes, Sir Richard Weston, Hartlib, and Blythe, to which may be added Evelyn.

235. For the adoption of the clover and turnip as agricultural plants, we are indebted to Sir Richard Weston, who, in 1645, gives an account of their culture in Flanders, where he says, he "saw it cutting near Antwerp on the 1st of June 1644, being then two feet long, and very thick; that he saw it cut again on the 29th of the same month, being twenty inches long; and a third time in August, being eighteen inches long." Blythe, in 1653, is copious in his directions for its cultivation; and Lisle (Obs. on Husbandry), in the beginning of the eighteenth century, speaks of it as commonly cultivated in Hampshire, Wiltshire, Gloucestershire, and other counties.

236. Turnips, the same patriotic author observes," are cultivated for feeding kine in many parts of England; but there is as much difference between what groweth in Flanders and here, as is between the same thing which groweth in a garden and that which groweth wild in the fields." It is probable the English turnips he alludes to, were rape, which is mentioned by Googe, in 1586: but though Gerarde, in 1597, and Parkinson, in 1629, mention the turnip as a garden vegetable, yet neither of these authors give the least hint of their field culture; be that as it may, Ray, in 1686, informs us, that they are sown every where in fields and gardens both in England and abroad for the sake of their roots. Lisle also, in 1707, mentions their being common in Norfolk, Hampshire, Berkshire, and various counties. The common story, therefore, that their culture was first introduced by Charles Lord Viscount Townsend, cannot be true; but their culture was probably greatly improved by him, when he retired from public business to Rainham in Norfolk, in 1730.

237. The first notices of sheep being fed on the ground with turnips, is given in Houghton's Collections on Husbandry and Trade, a periodical work begun in 1681. In 1684, Worlidge, one of Houghton's correspondents, observes, "sheep fatten very well on turnips, which prove an excellent nourishment for them in hard winters, when fodder is scarce; for they will not only eat the greens, but feed on the roots in the ground, and scoop them hollow even to the very skin." "Ten acres," he adds, "sown with clover, turnips, &c. will feed as many sheep as one hundred acres thereof would before have done." (Houghton's Collections, vol. iv. p. 142—144.)

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238. Potatoes, first introduced in 1565, (230.) were at this time beginning to attract notice. "The potatoe," says Houghton, " is a bacciferous herb with esculent roots, bearing winged leaves, and a bell flower.”—“ This, I have been informed, was brought first out of Virginia by Sir Walter Raleigh; and he stopping at Ireland, some was planted there, where it thrived very well, and to good purpose; for in their succeeding wars, when all the corn above ground was destroyed, this supported them; for the soldiers, unless they had dug up all the ground where they grew, and almost sifted it, could not extirpate them. From thence they were brought to Lancashire, where they are very numerous, and now they began to spread all the kingdom over." They are a pleasant food, boiled or roasted, and eaten with butter and sugar. There is a sort brought from Spain that are of a longer form, (Convolvulus batatas), (fig. 30.), and are more luscious than ours; they are much set by, and sold for sixpence or eightpence the pound." (Ib. vol. ii. p. 468.)